Chapter 41
I walk into the clubhouse expecting her to be there.
That’s the first mistake. Not because she should have been anywhere else.
She shouldn’t have. She knows that now. Everyone knows that now.
After the alley, after the knife, after the message, after every fucking warning written in blood and fear around her name, there is no version of this day where Olivia should be outside these walls without me.
So I expect her.
In the main room with the women. In the kitchen with coffee she probably won’t finish.
Curled on the couch with Knox trying to climb into her lap like he’s decided she belongs to him too.
Maybe in my room, wearing one of my shirts, pretending she isn’t tired because she hates being treated like she’s fragile.
I step inside with warehouse smoke still clinging to my cut and dried blood dark along my knuckles, and my eyes go straight to the couch.
Empty.
Kitchen.
No Olivia.
Hall.
No Olivia.
Something shifts. Not panic. Not yet. A small, cold adjustment inside me. The kind that happens before a gun clears leather, before a blade hits skin, before instincts decide faster than thought. Mac looks up from the kitchen island. The second she sees my face, hers changes.
Wrong.
My boots stop on the floor. “Where is she?”
The room quiets. Not all at once. But fast enough.
Kya turns from the counter. Brooke freezes near the couch with Mason’s toy in one hand. Emma straightens from where she’s sitting. Blaze, standing near the bar, stops mid-sentence.
Mac’s eyes flick toward the front door. That’s all it takes. The world narrows.
“Where is she?” I repeat. Lower this time.
Mac swallows. “Eli took her out.”
Everything stops. Not the room.
Me.
Sound drops away first. Voices dull. The hum of the clubhouse fades until all I hear is my own pulse, slow and heavy, pounding once behind my ribs like something waking up.
Eli took her out.
My hand goes to my phone. No hesitation.
I hit her name.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
No answer.
I call again.
Nothing.
I call Eli.
Ring. Ring. Voicemail.
My grip tightens around the phone until the case creaks. No yelling. No roaring. No outward panic. Inside, something tears open.
Mac steps closer, hands lifting slightly like she knows better than to touch me but wants to calm me anyway. “Cobra—”
“Where?”
Her voice shakes despite her trying to steady it. “She found out it was your birthday. She wanted to get you something. Eli said he’d take her quick. Just to the store and back.”
Birthday.
For half a second, that word doesn’t fit anywhere.
Then it does. It lands like a blade between my ribs.
She left because of me. Because she wanted to give me something.
Because she thought she could make one normal, soft choice in a life that has been nothing but danger since I carried her through these doors.
Blaze moves first. “Dom!”
Dom comes out of the side room already reaching for his laptop. “What?”
“Track them,” I say. My voice doesn’t sound like mine. It sounds empty. Dead.
Dom’s expression sharpens. He doesn’t ask questions. Doesn’t waste one fucking second. He drops into a chair, laptop open before he fully sits, fingers moving fast. “Olivia and Eli?” he asks.
“Yes.”
Logan comes out of his office. “What happened?”
No one answers fast enough.
I look at him. “Eli took her out.”
Logan’s jaw locks. He doesn’t ask why. Not yet. That comes later if there is a later. “Dom,” he snaps.
“Already on it.”
I call Olivia again.
Nothing.
Eli.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Each unanswered ring peels something else off me. Control. Patience. Reason. All the thin layers that keep me human in rooms where people I care about stand too close.
Dom’s eyes flick over the screen. “Got Olivia’s phone.”
“Where?”
“Parking lot. Dawson’s Market off Route 9.”
I’m already moving.
Dom’s voice follows. “Wait.”
I stop so hard the floor might as well crack under my boots. “What?”
“Eli’s phone is there too.”
Silence.
Then Logan says, “Are they moving?”
Dom’s face tightens. “No.”
My chest goes still. Not breathing. Not thinking.
“Phones have been stationary for…” Dom checks the timestamp. “Forty-eight minutes.”
Forty-eight fucking minutes.
The number enters my head and becomes permanent. Everything that can happen in that time plays out at once. Too many images. Too fast. Hand over her mouth. Knife at her throat. Her body hitting pavement. Her voice telling me she can’t stop hearing his taunt.
I bet you thought that dumbass biker could keep you safe.
My vision cuts sharp enough that edges look too clear.
Logan’s voice comes through the room. “Cobra.” I look at him. His face is hard. Controlled. President. Brother. Problem handler. “We move smart.”
“No.” The word is immediate.
His eyes sharpen. “You don’t go alone.”
“I said no to waiting.”
“I didn’t say wait,” he snaps. “I said smart.”
Blaze is already grabbing keys. Shadow and Hammer are moving toward the door. Joker appears from the hall like the darkness spit him out, expression too calm.
“I’ll drive,” Blaze says.
“No.”
“You’re not riding like this.”
I turn my head slowly.
Blaze shuts his mouth. Not fear. Sense.
Logan steps into my path. Bad choice. “You ride blind, you miss something,” he says. “You miss something, we lose time. You want to find her, you fucking focus.”
The words hit because they’re true. I hate him for half a second. Then I force one breath in. It barely goes down. “Fine.”
Blaze tosses keys to Hammer. “Cage.”
Hammer catches them. “Move.”
We move. The ride takes too long. Every second burns.
I sit in the back of the SUV because Logan made that call before I could argue.
Shadow beside me. Joker up front with Hammer driving.
Blaze and Cain in the second cage behind us.
Dom is on speaker through the dash, still working from the clubhouse with Landon beside him pulling cameras, transactions, anything that can give us something. Anything.
“Phones still stationary,” Dom says. No one answers. The tires eat road. Not fast enough.
I call her again.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Eli.
No answer.
I stare at the phone like I can drag her voice out of it if I look hard enough.
Shadow’s voice comes low beside me. “Breathe.”
I don’t look at him. “Don’t.”
“You pass out, you’re useless.”
“I won’t.”
“You keep holding air like that, you might.”
Joker says from the front, “I can hit him. Restart the system.”
Hammer doesn’t look away from the road. “Not helpful.”
“Could be.”
“I said no.”
Normally Blaze would fill silence. He isn’t in this cage.
Good.
If he joked right now, I might break his jaw and not stop there.
Dom’s voice cuts through. “I’m pulling store cameras.”
“Anything?” Logan asks from the other vehicle, patched into the call.
“Not yet. Feed’s shit. It’s lagging.”
“Get it.”
“I’m fucking getting it,” Dom snaps, then immediately reins it in. “Sorry.”
No one cares. We reach the market in nine minutes.
Too long. Hammer barely puts the SUV in park before I’m out.
The parking lot is too open. Too quiet. Too normal.
Cars scattered. Storefront lights bright.
A few people moving inside like the world didn’t end here less than twenty minutes ago. Then I see it.
The SUV Eli took. Doors open. Driver side.
Rear passenger. Both hanging wide like whatever happened moved too fast for anyone to close them.
My body stops for one fraction of a second.
Then I’m moving. Fast. Across asphalt. Past a shopping cart tipped near the curb.
Past a torn paper bag split open on the ground.
Items scattered. A small box wrapped in dark paper.
Something for me.
My vision goes black at the edges. Not unconscious. Worse. Focused. I crouch beside the open door. No Olivia. No Eli. No blood inside at first glance. Then I see it.
A smear on the edge of the passenger seat. Not much. Enough. I lean in, breathe through my nose, take in what I can. Chemical. Faint. Sharp. Sedative. Zip tie end on the floorboard. A torn scrap of fabric caught near the seat track.
Her hoodie?
No. Not sure. Not enough.
Shadow checks the perimeter. Hammer scans the far side of the lot. Joker moves toward the cameras mounted above the storefront. Blaze comes up behind me and stops.
“Fuck,” he says quietly.
I look down at the bags. She came here because she found out it was my birthday. She wanted to give me something. They took that too. Not the gift. The choice. Her choice.
Mine.
Everything.
“Cobra,” Shadow says.
I turn.
He’s near a patch of pavement on the passenger side. Scuff marks. Dragging. One dark drop near the tire. Blood. Could be Eli. Could be hers. The sound that comes out of me isn’t human.
Blaze moves first. “Brother—”
I don’t remember crossing the distance.
I just know the shopping cart hits the side of a parked car hard enough to fold metal.
Someone screams near the store entrance.
Hammer barks for them to get inside. My fist slams into the SUV door, once, twice, three times, until pain splits across my knuckles and the door buckles inward. Hands grab me.
Shadow.
Hammer.
Cain from behind.
I throw one off. Not sure which.
“Cobra!” Logan’s voice cracks across the lot.
I turn toward him, chest heaving, hands bloody again, but this time the blood is mine. “They took her.” The words don’t sound like words. They sound like a verdict.
Logan steps closer, palms open but not soft. “I know.”
“They took her.”
“I know.”
I move toward the road. No thought. No plan. Just direction. They left somewhere. They are somewhere. They took her somewhere. Find the road. Find the car. Find the men. Peel the world open until she falls out.
Cain grabs my arm.
I swing.
He ducks it, barely, and drives his shoulder into me, trying to shove me back against the SUV. Shadow gets in from the other side. Hammer locks onto my other arm. They’re strong. All of them. Not enough. I slam back, breaking the hold halfway.
Joker appears in front of me. Still. Calm. “Not like this,” he says.
I look at him, and for once there is nothing funny in his face. Nothing amused. Nothing cruel. Just understanding so dark it almost looks like mercy. “Move.”
“No.”
I lunge.
He doesn’t move fast enough because he isn’t trying to avoid me. He’s trying to stop me.
Bad choice.
My hand locks around his cut and drives him back into the side of the SUV. Cain and Shadow hit me from behind again, both of them this time. Hammer gets an arm around my throat, not choking fully, but enough to limit movement.
“Cobra!” Logan roars. “Stand the fuck down!”
No.
No standing down.
No waiting.
No strategy.
No church.
No chain of command.
No president.
No brotherhood.
They took her.
The world narrows to that.
Everything else becomes obstacle.
I drive my elbow back into Hammer’s ribs. He grunts but doesn’t let go. Shadow curses and grabs my wrist before I can reach Joker again. Cain says something I don’t hear.
Blaze is suddenly in my face, hands up, split lip still faintly marked from where I hit him days ago. “Brother, listen to me.”
I bare my teeth. “Move.”
“No.”
“I’ll go through you.”
His expression doesn’t change. “Yeah. I know.” For a second, that almost lands. Then I see the blood drop on the pavement again. Hers or Eli’s. Doesn’t matter. It snaps whatever thin thread Blaze almost caught.
I surge forward.
All of them move at once. The fight turns ugly fast. Not because they want to hurt me. Because they have to stop me. Because I’m not thinking past get her, find her, kill them, bring her home.
Hammer’s forearm tightens around my throat. Cain gets one arm locked. Shadow the other. Joker grabs my cut and drives his shoulder into my chest.
Blaze hooks a hand behind my neck, forcing my eyes to his. “Olivia needs you useful,” he grits out. “Not feral. Not fucking stupid. Useful.”
My breathing tears through my chest.
The words hit.
Olivia.
Needs.
Useful.
I freeze for half a second. Not calm. Not controlled. Stopped.
Blaze sees it. “Good,” he says, voice low. “There you are.”
“I’ll kill them.”
“Yeah,” he says. “We all know. But first we find them.”
Logan steps closer. His phone is in his hand. “Dom has camera feed.”
Every muscle in my body stays locked.
Hammer doesn’t loosen his hold yet.
Smart.
Logan keeps talking. “Dark sedan. No plates visible yet. Second vehicle blocked the angle. Eli fought. They took him too.”
Eli.
My head turns. “They took Eli?”
“Yes.”
Another piece locks into place. They didn’t just take her. They took the prospect with her. Witness. Leverage. Punishment.
My vision sharpens again, but differently this time. Not less rage. Direction. “Where?”
“Dom is working it.”
I look toward the store. Camera. Feed. Routes.
Dom.
Find the thread. Peel it.
End it.
My breathing slows by force. One breath. Another.
Hammer’s arm loosens slightly.
Shadow doesn’t let go.
Logan watches me. “You with me?”
No.
I’m with her.
But to get to her, I need them. So I say, “Yeah.”
He studies me. Hard. Then nods once. “Let him go.”
They release me slowly. No one trusts it.
Good.
They shouldn’t.
I look down at my hands. Blood from my knuckles.
Metal cuts. Nothing important. The birthday bag sits on the pavement near my boot.
I crouch. Pick it up. The paper is torn.
One corner crushed. Inside is something small wrapped carefully, destroyed now by asphalt and boots and the violence that took her.
My chest tightens once. Then it stops. I hand it to Blaze without looking at him. “Keep it.”
His face changes. He takes it. No joke. No words.
Smart.
Dom’s voice comes through Logan’s phone. “I’ve got direction.”
The entire lot stills.
Logan puts him on speaker. “Talk.”
“Sedan left west, then cut onto Palmer. Second vehicle followed. I’ve got one camera catching a turn toward the old industrial corridor.”
My head lifts. Warehouse routes. Storage lots. Industrial corridor. They didn’t run random. They ran home.
“Send it,” Logan orders.
“Already did.”
I turn toward the SUV. This time no one stops me.
Because they see it now. The panic is gone.
Not because I’m calm. Because it hardened.
They took her. Everything shifts. This is no longer war.
War has rules, sides, strategy, endings men can name.
This is annihilation. Everything will burn until I find her.
And when I do, I’ll make sure the men who touched her understand there are worse things than death.
There’s me.